Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a flat plug-in contact member for electrical plug-in connections containing a stamped/bent part with a line terminal element at one end of the contact member. An intermediate region follows the line terminal element and is bent to form a cross-sectionally rectangular box with two side walls. A bottom wall connects the two side walls along with a top wall. A contact blade formed of two halves is provided at the other end of the contact member and the blade protrudes from the intermediate region and is thicker than the other regions.
Such flat plug-in contact members are often used as flat connectors in the case of motor-vehicle plug-in connectors, where they are exposed to aggressive operating conditions. Such contact members are Often configured with a contact blade of, for example, 2.8.times.0.63 mm or 5.2.times.0.63 mm and, owing to the required resistance to being stood on, for example, must have high mechanical stability. For this reason, the intermediate region of such a contact member, that is to say the region between the contact blade and the line terminal element, is often configured as a rectangular, closed box. The contact blade itself must also have a certain stability for mechanical and electrical reasons. It is therefore usually formed with twice the material thickness of the other regions of the contact member.
European Patent EP 0 572 874 B1 discloses a contact member of the type stated at the beginning which is produced from a stamped/bent part and has a cross-sectionally rectangular, box-shaped intermediate region, to which a contact blade of twice the material thickness is joined. The contact blade is in this case formed by two halves, which are attached as extensions to the side walls of the intermediate region and, by bending up the side walls and folding them laterally together, form a complete contact blade of twice the material thickness. In the case of such a contact member, a relatively great pitch of the stamped sheet-metal parts lying next to one another in a sheet-metal strip is obtained in the developed view of the intermediate region and the contact blade.
Furthermore, German Patent DE 195 39 714 C1 likewise discloses a flat plug-in contact member of the type stated at the beginning. In this contact member the original stamped/bent part is initially of a uniform thickness, which corresponds to the final thickness of the contact blade and is reduced, for example by a milling tool, in the terminal region and in the intermediate region to approximately half the material thickness of the original material. In the case of this contact member, an additional processing operation is therefore envisaged for producing the material thickness provided in the individual regions. Here, the contact blade is joined to the base wall of the intermediate region, which apart from the base wall has the two side walls and the top wall. Here too, a relatively great pitch of the stamped sheet-metal parts is obtained in the developed view of the contact member.